Feedback for Strava's new maps (OpenStreetMap)

Strava is actively working with Mapbox (the open source mapping platform that supplies us with OpenStreetMap) to make sure we offer the best mapping experience for our athletes.

Mapbox gives us the opportunity to create customized maps that fit aesthetically and functionally with Strava. With open source data, errors or missing map assets can be fixed quickly and efficiently, creating the most detailed and robust maps for cycling and running. We believe in the potential and power of maps by OSM and we're focused on giving the Strava community the best experience possible.

Where did Street View go?

Mapbox does not provide Street View functionality at this time. We realize this functionality was valuable for some athletes; we'll do our best to re-incorporate it when possible.

August 14th, 2015:

We’re 100% committed to making Strava better for our athletes, and we hear you loud and clear regarding this switch from Google Maps to OSM. We didn’t anticipate how strongly some of our athletes would react to the change and apologize that it was a sudden disappointment to some of you. We could have done a better job explaining our reasoning and bracing you for the switch, handling the roll-out, taking more time to work with Mapbox, etc.

It may not seem like it now, but we believe deeply that changing to OSM is the best choice we can make for our athletes and our company. There is enormous potential and creative flexibility offered by the new maps and we ask that you stick with us and continue providing feedback as we bring that potential to fruition.

Your reports on the quality of the maps, such as missing map data and satellite image quality, can be addressed. We are working closely Mapbox, our OSM map provider, on both satellite imagery and road data and we’re invested in improving your experience. By providing specific examples of satellite and road data, we can act quickly to update the map data.

We've noted all your comments regarding street view, and understand how important it is to you. The top use for street view seems to center around segments, in viewing segment start and end coordinates as well as viewing the road surface and surroundings. Street view is still available when creating segments, and it may be possible to return street view to other areas of the segment experience. We will have more to share on this soon.

Our designers are compiling initial thoughts on how Strava can leverage certain styles, colors and shading to customize the map experience. We are already incorporating the existing feedback we’ve received here. Please continue to send us your feedback on how the look and feel of the maps can be improved.

- The Strava Team

August 21st, 2015:

When you visit a segment page, you can now click either endpoint of the segment to be brought to the street view for that location. Or, you can select one of the options from the map view menu (pictured below).

This addition is not meant to fully resolve your concerns about the switch to Mapbox. We're doing the best we can to respond to your feedback quickly while still maintaining our commitment to elevate your map experience with Mapbox. It's going to take time and we ask that you stick with us, and we'll continue to take your feedback to heart and iterate whenever possible.

September 2nd, 2015

We've just updated our maps to support four languages: English, French, German and Spanish. Now, if you're traveling or viewing the map in another country, you'll be able to see map labels and place names in your language.

How it works: If you have Strava set to one of the above four languages, you will see map labels in that language. For any other language that is not supported at this time, you will see the default map which displays regional language. To change your language preferences, use the menu at the bottom of any Strava page.

This map update also refreshes imagery for the Satellite map in select areas.

October 22nd, 2015

We're excited to announce updated maps in collaboration with Mapbox, featuring an intuitive display of map data and activity-specific styling. Designed especially with runners and cyclists in mind, we focused on a visual experience that would relay the map information we believe most helpful to our athletes:

Offset road labels for better visibility along activities

Visually distinct running and cycling paths

Highlighted pedestrian areas, outdoor areas, and parks

Vivid terrain styling and high-contrast mountain areas

Lower map label density for urban areas

Major highways and high-traffic roads de-prioritized in grey

Added points of interest most relevant to activity on Strava

Contour lines and elevation labels on satellite view

This is the first of several map projects we are working on as part of our ongoing goal to make your mapping experience on Strava more accurate, informative and rich.

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Not sure if I speak more the majority but I rarely if ever used street view from a Segment page, it was always from viewing an activity.

However if you can pop open Google Maps straight into streetview at any given known location then perhaps you could add the ability to click/tap anywhere on the activity map, capture the mouse/tap coordinates, extrapolate to actual map coordinates and pass to Google Maps?

Maybe add a little bike or pair of shoes to "drop" into the map? Assuming Google doesn't have some copyright against that in principle lol.

I'm with Stuart in that I've never used or thought of using Streetview in segments. However, if it's possible to easily add it there one would think/hope streetview could also be easily added back to the normal Overview page.

It's nice to have SV back. One can see an entire route advancing one click at a time or jump using one of the many segments some roads have. :-)

I guess the major expense with Google maps was the lookup/projection of GPS points. SV alone the cost is nil?

I would like to see the return of the segment start/end markers. I checked http://www.strava.com/segments/636064. The view of the start is well before the start and the view of the end is well after the end. (20 - 40 meters)

Was one of the first to post on this topic and have been watching the replies with great interest. I do seem to be one of the few runners to comment (although do cycle a bit as well). Street View has always been invaluable in seeing exactly where segments start and end. I've created hundreds myself (mainly running ones) and always use it to check that I am putting the start/end in sensible and safe positions. At least this functionality is still available in its original form when creating them and also using the Compare tool.

As others have stated it's also very invaluable to get a good general feel of a ride or run.

This has lots of parallels when Garmin moved away from Google maps on Garmin Connect and only offered Bing. Eventually they saw sense and offered both plus OSM as well so everybody is a winner and clear there are times when one of is best and other times another. Looks like Strava won't ever admit that this is due to license costs. Logic suggests making Google the default is going to cost them lots of money so hence going to OSM. I note this new Start/End view on segments goes straight to Google itself so presume that costs nothing? As such, would be more than happy if OSM was the default (as might be cheaper and maybe even occasionally "better") but Google (and also Bing for that matter) was offered up as an alternative and even if that was just for Premium members.

I largely become a Premium member to support Strava as I love it so much (or did before this!) but never really understand their business model as the best bits of Strava (social & segments) are free to everybody and without a Power meter and/or being a serious cyclist the Premium stuff does not really offer a huge amount anyway although I do like live segments on the phone app even though use my Garmin to record my activities generally.

Keep up the pressure everybody and hope they continue to listen and/or rue the lost subscriptions.

I've used the recent "improvements" for a couple of days now and even with the best will in the world the whole experience is still way, way below what Strava used to be with Google maps. Dragging the Streetview icon onto an unfamiliar ride, whether it be a friend who's riding miles away from where I live or a pro riding in the Vuelta, was a real asset that Strava has simply thrown away, one that brought cyclists of all disciplines closer together, made the world a bit smaller and one I really miss. Being able to see where segments start and end was a very small part of the way I used Streetview and including it now as a crappy bolt on to the new maps serves only to remind us exactly what we've lost and how inferior its replacement is.

Strava has become a considerably poorer experience all round, yet I'm still expected to pay the same amount for Premium use. The shockingly bad handling of this issue has destroyed the brands reputation for me and in saying that you "didn’t anticipate how strongly some of our athletes would react to the change" you show that either you don't know your core customers very well, you don't care or more worryingly both.

I have tried to get used to the new maps but in the end I'd have to say I just don't like them. They are visually unappealing and since the contour intervals are in meters I'm wasting time converting to feet in my head. Go back to the old maps - these are making me lose interest in the site.

The sudden switch from Google Maps (with streetview) to Mapbox is another example of how STRAVA now treats its paying customers - as if they do not exist. It is not enough to try and appease people with a forum discussion and comments such as "we’re 100% committed to making Strava better for our athletes" AFTER you have made the switch AGAIN without consultation. Being in northern Japan the difference between Google Maps and Mapbox is massive, also the ability to view roads ahead of time is vital when considering terrain etc.... Not to mention to the poor GPS line-up on the new maps which has made several segments vanish...... Poor customer service.

this map change IS very ANNOYING and very disappointing that you've gone to a SUB-STANDARD platform. I can no longer ZOOM into mtb segments for example when creating segments, so can't see start/end points, where's street VIEW wtf, I need that for planning rides and checking road shoulders, why not listen to your users and test this first before rolling it out on us, this demonstrates that you're not consulting your customer base.

Its pretty competitive out there is GPS land and this change is more a reflection of you guys treating us poorly. Not happy.

The new start/end Streetview points are absolutely no substitute for the functionality and user experience before. I used Streetview not only to see the start or end of segments, but to look at friends' rides, see how amazing or tough their routes were. It was a vital element to what made Strava so interesting. Adding a link to the start or end is also useless in its current format, as you can't actually see where the segment is, especially at junctions. The sooner you do a rollback Strava, the better.

The new maps are very, very bad in my region. But that's not the worst. The very unfriendly interface, bad colors, slow map updates and removal of Sreet View makes the map function in Strava not useable.
Please listen to the community and bring Google maps back as an option! Without the users, Strava is nothing. So - please try to understand our frustration.

I just upgrade my RwGPS account as a means to close the route planning gap. Google Earth has become an absolute must for my route planning. Their GPS files (for the 510) produce better turn by turns, label major roads on the breadcrumb map, and include elevation. When riding away from home I have become 100% dependant on my preplanned route ideally hitting the best roads (at least paved) in a given region and unfortunately Strava's site can no longer provide the degree of planning. The only thing I am missing now is being able to look (google Earth) at a friends cool, destination type ride. As a work around I can export their ride and load it into RwGPS .. or have them join and push to RwGPS.

@Maureen...thats interesting you've been having map issues too......mine just suddenly came back, but have switched iPad on/off few times during the day, and reloaded strava, so not sure what worked....hope you get your problem sorted asap!

@Daniel Standing:
Did look at MapMyRide (possibly slightly better fr multi sport activities?) but eventually decided to go with RideWithGPS. Not much to choose between them other than I have a bunch of friends already using RideWithGPS.
Early days but seems rather promising. Had a few initial queries and was pleasantly pleased with the speed of response from their customer support team!
Good luck with MapMyRide - please let us know how you get on with it.

make sure you contact strava with your issues as they seem to be currently in denial.

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Hello Strava, re: map changes form google to osm, which has poor quality, no street view and no satellite zoom view.

When I paid my subscription you had Google Maps, now you have downgraded to an inferior version of MAPS OSM without consulting me or allowing me to evaluate and/or decide. I'm not happy about this, do I receive a part refund for a downgrade in my product experience? At this stage I WON'T be renewing my membership, there are free products out there yet I've choose to support you guys and what you stand for, yet you treat your community of users as stupid thinking we won't notice the downgrade in the product. At the least you could have offered non paying members the inferior product - osm and us paid users the Google Maps.!! Disappointed ...... Antonin.

I felt compelled to write in and voice my feedback on the change of maps. Not having Google Street View is a big big FAIL. I understand not wanting to let Google rule the world but perhaps you should have waited until the new Map service was a full feature service before moving over. Loosing Street View means I can't research new ride routes or Segment Starts and Finishes. Please fix this ASAP. Thanks

This is insane. Wy don't you listen to 200 of your most loyal users – the ones ho really care about your product? I feel that I care less and less about Strava – Strava isn't my community/tracking/planning-tool any more - why do i even care? Bye!

Having been forced to use other programs (RwGPS) for planning/routing I find the value of Strava falling pretty close to facebook for cycling. I can "like" a ride a buddy does and check out how fast he went .... and not much else. The value of segments is getting watered down as time goes on ... software programs push data to all other "segment type" sites anyway... I guess the one unique element that Strava does is group users together ... I am very disappointed. As I spend more and more time on other sites I am slowly seeing and reconnecting with the same riders I follow on Strava. It would be sad to see Strava crash.